MPhil/MSt in Modern South Asian Studies
CORE COURSE
THE HISTORY AND CULTURE
OF SOUTH ASIA
Readings and Classes
General Reference Works
Crispin Bates, Subalterns and Raj: South Asia since 1600 (2007)
S. Bose & A. Jalal, Modern South Asia (1998)
Band T Metcalf, A concise history of India (2002)
Catherine B. Asher and Cynthia Talbot, India Before Europe (2006)
GOl'don Johnson, Cultural Atlas of India (1995)
F. Robinson, The Cambridge Encyclopedia ofSouth Asia (1989)
CA Bayly, The Raj, India and the British 1600-1947 (1990)
CA Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (1998)
Srnnit Sarkar, Modern India 1885-1947 (1989)
D. Krnnar & M. Desai eds. Cambrige Economic History of India vol2 (1983)
Journals
Modern Asian Studies
Journal ofAsian Studies
Indian Economic & Social History Review
South Asia
Economic and Political Weekly
JSTOR: online archive for articles
The Hindu online, especially Frontline fortnightly magazine.
5
MICHAELMAS TERM
WEEK 1: EARLY MODERN SOUTH ASIA: CONTEXTS
Questious
(i) What significant changes marked the coming of the 'early modern' in India?
(ii) How far was 'early modernity' in South Asia reflected in new literary genres and
intellectual frameworks?
Primary source
*Wheeler M. Thackston, (ed.), The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor.
Oxford University Press 1996, 'Events of the Year 932' (1525-6), pp. 311-362.
(i) Societies and economies
*John F Richards, The Mughal Empire (1993) 1-58.
*Catherine B. Asher and Cynthia Talbot India Before Europe (2006)', ch 6: Expanding
political and economic spheres, 1550-1650': 152-85.
David Washbrook, 'India in the early modern world economy: modes of production,
reproduction and exchange' in Journal of Global History, 2, (2007): 87-111.
Ashin Das Gupta and MN Pearson (eds), India and the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800 (2000)
Introduction and ch. 5
*Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'Connected Histories: Notes towards a Reconfiguration of Early
Modern Eurasia' in Modern Asian Studies 31, 3, (1997), 735-762.
_ _ . 'Intra-Asian Elite Migration and Early Modern State Formation', Journal of
Asian Studies (1993)
(ii) Intellectual histories
Stephen Frederic Dale, 'Steppe humanism: the autobiographical writings of Zahir ai-Din
Muhammad Babur, 1483-1530' in International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, no. I,
February 1990, pp. 37-58.
Sheldon Pollock, 'New Intellectuals in seventeenth century India' in Indian Economic
and Social History Review, 38,1, (2001): 1-31
Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Indo-Persian Travels In The Age Of
Discoveries, 1400-1800 (2007), Introduction
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WEEK 2: EMPIRES AND STATES IN EARLY MODERN INDIA
Questions
(i) Did the success of the Mughal state rest on the common frameworks that it imposed,
or on the degree to which it was able to accommodate cultural difference and regional
identities?
6
(ii) How far did Indian political elites share a coherent theory of 'virtuous government' in
early modern India?
(iii) Is it meaningful to talk about 'religious community identity' in early modern India?
(iv)How far does the study of the body and of norms for comportment amplify our
understanding of Mughal political culture?
Primary sources
*Akbar's Dasturu'l 'amal (A circular enumerating the Duties of Officers) addressed to
the Ummal and Mutasuddis of the Empire, 21 March 1594, in Mansura Haidar,
Mukatabar-i-Allami (Insha'I Abu'l Fazl) (1998): 79-88
(i) The Mughal Empire and Regional Societies
Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (eds) The Mughal State 1526-1750 (1998): 171.
John Richards, The Mughal Empire, Cambridge University Press (1993): 58-93.
~~_. Kingship and Authority in South Asia (1998): ch 7, 'Rajput Loyalties during the
Mughal Period'
*Catherine B. Asher and Cynthia Talbot India Before Europe (2006) chs 6 and 8.
Richard Eaton, A social history of the Deccan, 1300-1761: eight Indian lives (2005): chs
4-5.
:::-__ . India's Islamic traditions, 711-1750 (2003): 1-36 (Introduction).
Stewart Gordon, 'Zones of Military Entrepreneurship in India' in Stewart Gm'don,
Marathas, Marauders and State Formation in Eighteenth Century India, 1500-1700
(1994): 182-208.
_ _ . The Marathas 1600-1818 (1993), chs 2-3, 38-90
(ii) Political thonght and intellectual cultures
*CA Bayly, Origins of Nationality in South Asia: Patriotism and Ethical Government in
the Making ofModern India (1998): 11-30.
Kum Kum Chatterjee, 'History as self-representation: the recasting of a political tradition
in late eighteenth century eastern India', in Modern Asian Studies, 32, 4, (1998)
Sheldon Pollock, The Ends of Man at the End of Pre-Modernity (2005) 'Artha:
Rajadharrnasastra and the End of Political Theory': 63-78
Muzaffar Alam, The Languages of Political Islam. India 1200-1800. (2004), ch. 2:
'Sharia, Akhlaq and Governance', 26-80.
Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'The Making of a Munshi' in Comparative
Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 24.2.(2004): 61-72.
SAA Rizvi, Religious and Intellectual History of the Muslims in Akbar 's Reign (1975):
ch. 9: 'Religious and political thinking of Abu'l Fazl': 339-372
V. Narayana Rao and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'Notes on political thought in medieval and
early Modem South India' in Modern Asian Studies, vol. 43, Part 1, January 2009.
(iii) Religious relations and identities
'CA Bayly, 'The Pre-history of "Communalism"? Religious conflict in India, 17001860', in Origins ofNationality in South Asia: Patriotism and Ethical government in the
Making of Modern India. (1998): 210-37
7
Cynthia Talbot, 'Inscribing the Self, Inscribing the Other: Hindu-Muslim Identities in
Pre-Colonial India' in Richard M. Eaton. India's Islamic traditions, 711-1750. (2003):
84-117
Richard M. Eaton. India's Islamic traditions, 711-1750. (2003): Introduction, 1-36.
~~_. 'Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States' in David Gilmartin and Bruce
Lawrence (eds), Beyond Turk and Hindu: rethinking religious identities in Islamicate
South Asia (2000): ch. 10: 246-81.
Eleanor Zelliot, 'A Medieval Encounter Between Hindu and Muslim: Eknath's DramaPoem, Hindu-Turk Samvad' in Richard M. Eaton. India's Islamic traditions, 711-1750.
(2003): 64-82
Stewart Gordon, 'Maratha Patronage of Muslim Institntions in Burhanpur and Khandesh'
in Richard M. Eaton. India's Islamic traditions, 711-1750. (2003): 327-338.
SAA Rizvi, Shah Wali-Allah and His Times: A study ofEighteenth Century Islam,
Politics and Society in India (1980) ch. 6: The political and social thought of Shah Waliallah' pp. 286-316.
Muzaffar Alam, 'The Mughals, the Sufi Shaikhs and the formation of the Akbari
Dispensation' in Modern Asian Studies, vol. 43, Part 1, January 2009.
(iv) Gender, honsehold and social norms
Ruby Lal, Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World (2005) ch 6.
*Rosalind O'Hanlon, 'Kingdom, household and body: history, gender and imperial
service under Akbar', Modern Asian Studies (2007): 887-922
=-~_. 'Manliness and Imperial Service in Mughal North India' in Journal of the
Economic and Social History of the Orient, 42, 1, 1999.
JF Richard, 'Norms of Comportment among Imperial Mughal Officers' in Barbara
Daly Metcalf (ed.), Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in South Asian
Islam (1984).
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WEEK 3: COSMOPOLITAN AND VERNACULAR LANGUAGES
Questions
(i) How far and in what ways did the 'cosmopolitan' languages of early modern India
facilitiate the process of vernacular is ation?
(ii) 'The development of regional states, rather than the communicative needs of
devotional traditions, drove on the process of vernacularisation in early modern India'.
Discuss
(iii) In what senses were vernacular languages 'languages of place'?
Primary source
'Krsnadevaraya' in Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman (eds), Classical Telugu
Poetry: An Anthology. (2002) ch 12,166-177.
(i) Interplays between cosmopolitan and vernacular languages
8
Muzaffar Alam, 'The Culture and Politics of Persian in Precolonial Hindustan' in
Sheldon Poliock, Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia, (2003),
pp. 159-71
Shantanu Phukan, "'Through Throats Where Many Rivers Meet": The Ecology of Hindi
in the World of Persian' , Indian Economic and Social History Review 2001,38:1, pp. 3358.
*Sheldon Poliock, 'The Cosmopolitan Vernacular' in Journal ofAsian Studies, 57, 1
(1998),6-37.
Yigal Bronner and David Shulman, 'A Cloud Turned Goose: Sanskrit in the Vernacular
Millennium' in Indian Economic and Social History Review, 43.1: 1-30
Vasudha Narayan, 'Religious vocabulary and regional identity: A Study of the Tamil
Cirappuranam (,Life of the PropheC)', in Richard M. Eaton. India's Islamic traditions,
711-1750.. (2003): 392-410.
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi. Early Urdu Literary Culture. (2001).
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'Recovering Babel' in Daud Ali (ed.), Invoking the Past: The
Uses of History in South Asia, (1999): 280-321.
(ii) Regional states and vernacnlar langnages
Sumit Guha, 'Transitions and Translations: Regional Power and Vernacular Identity in
the Dakhan, 1500-1800' in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Afhca and the Middle
East, 24:2 (2004). 24:1, pp. 23-31.
Richard Eaton, A social history of the Deccan, 130.0.-1761: eight Indian lives (2005) ch.
6: 129-54.
Allison Busch, 'Literary Responses to the Mughal Imperium: The Historical Poems of
Kesavdas' in South Asia Research, 1, (2005): 31-54.
*Cynthia Talbot, Pre-Colonial India in Practice: Society, Region and Identity in
Medieval Andhra (2001), Conclusion: 'Towards a new model of medieval India', 208-15.
_ _ _ _ . 'Inscribing the Self, Inscribing the Other: Hindu-Muslim Identities in PreColonial India' in Richard M. Eaton. India's Islamic traditions, 711-1750.. (2003): 84-117
(iii) Vernacular languages and devotional traditions
Anne Feldhaus 'Maharashtra as a holy land: a sectarian tradition', Bulletin of the School
of Oriental and African Studies, XLIX, 1, (1986): 15-31.
Aditia Behl, 'The Magic Doe: Desire and Narrative in a Hindavi Sufi Romance' in
Richard M. Eaton. India's Islamic traditions, 711-1750. (2003): 180-208.
Joseph T. O'Conneli, Religious Movements and Social Structure: the case ofChaitanya 's
Vaishnavism in Bengal (1993)
*Sheldon Pollock, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture and
Power in Premodern India (2006): 'Religion and Vernacularisation': 423-36 .
.K. Schomer and WH McLeod (eds), The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of
India (1987)
A W Entwistle, Bra}: Centre of Krishna Pilgrimage (1987)
John Stratton Hawley, Songs of the Saints ofIndia (1988)
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9
WEEK 4: REGIONAL STATES AND SOCIETIES c. 1660-1800
Questions
(i) How were effectively did the regional states of eighteenth century India come to
terms with their new commercial and military environments?
(ii) Why did modes of history-writing emerge as such a prominent literary genre in later
pre-colonial India?
Primary source
*The Ajnapatra, or Royal Edict. (Principles of Maratha State Policy) Ramachandrapant
Amatya, 1716. SV Puntambekar (ed.), Journal ofIndian History, viii, 1929, 207-233.
The eighteenth century background
*P] Marshall, The Eighteenth Century in Indian History: Evolution or Revolution?
(2003) Introduction, 1-36
C.A. Bayly, Indian Society & the Making of the British Empire (1988) chs 1-2,7-78.
*Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the
Modern Age, (1999), ch 2, 'The "Brahman Raj": kings and service people, c. 1700-1830',
pp. 64-96.
(i) Regional states and their environments
Kate Brittlebank, Tipu Sultan's Search for Legitimacy: Islam and Kingship in a Hindu
Domain (1995).
*CA Bayly, 'The Rise of the Corporations' in P] Marshall(ed), The Eighteenth Century
in Indian History: Evolution or Revolution? (2003) ch. 6: 137-71.
I.R. McLane, Land and Local Kingship in 18th century Bengal chs 1-4 and Conclusion
Rajat Datta, Society, Economy and Market: Commercialisation in Rural Bengal, 17601800, (2000), ch. 'The Agrarian Economy and the Dynamics of Commercial
Transactions' .
Muzaffar Alam, The Crisis ofEmpire in Mughal North India: Awadh and the Punjab,
1707-48 (1987) esp. conclusion
Stewart Gordon, Marathas, Marauders and State Formation in Eighteenth Century India
(1994), chs 2-3, 23-81.
S. GOl'don The Marathas (1993), Conclusion
J.L. Gommans, The Rise ofIndo-Afghan Empire 1710-80 - introduction, chapter 1 and
conclusion (a study of the Pathan Muslim-ruled Rohilla states)
(ii) History-writing and intellectual cultures
*Kum Kum Chatterjee, 'History as self-representation: the recasting of a political
tradition in late eighteenth century eastern India', in Modern Asian Studies, 32, 4, 1998
Prachi Deshpande, Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India,
1700-1960. (2007) chs 1-2
Sumit Guha 'Speaking Historically: The Changing Voices of Historical Narration in
Western India' in American Historical Review, 109, no. 4, (2004),1084-2004.
10
Velcheru Narayana Rao, David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Textures of Time:
Writing History in South India 1600-1800 (2003) ch I. Introduction: A palette of
histories, 1-23; ch. 5, 'Tarikh, Caritra, Bakhar', 184-249.
Cynthia Talbot, Pre-Colonial India in Practice: Society, Region and Identity in Medieval
Andhra (2001), 'The Kakatiyas in Telugu Historical Memory' 174-207.
Khurshidul Islam and Ralph Russel, Three Mughal Poets: Mir, Sauda, Mir Hasan (1969),
esp. 'The Eighteenth Century Backgronnd', 1-36.
******************************************
WEEK 5: COMMERCE AND WAR, 1760-1820
Questions
(i) How and why did the East India Company move from trade to political dominion in
India, c. 1750-18207
(ii) 'British India was created by Indians'.
Sources
*Arthur Wel!esley, 'Memorandum on the Marquess Wel!esley's Government ofIndia
(1806), reprinted in Michael H. Fisher, The Politics of the British Annexation of India
1757-1857, (1993) 175-82.
(i) East India Company Expansion: debates
*P.1. Marshal!, "Reappraisals", South Asia, 19, I. 1996
*D. Washbrook, 'Progress and problems: South Asian Economic and Social History c
1720-1860', Modern Asian Studies, xxii, 1998, 57-96 .
. 'The Transition to Colonialism in South India 1770-1840' in Modern Asian
c:----:c-Studies (2004)
c.A. Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication
in India, c. 1780-1870 (1996), chs. 2 - 4
~_. 'The British military-fiscal state and indigenous resistance in India, 1750-1820' in
CA Bayly, Origins ofNationality in South Asia (1998): 239-75
_ _. Indian society and the making of the British Empire (1998) chs 2-3
*__. 'The first age of global imperialism 1760-1830', Journal of Imperial and
Commonwealth History (1998)
Robert Travers, Ideology and Empire in eighteenth century India. (2007)
HV Bowen, 'British India 1763-1813: The Metropolitan Context' in PJ Marshall (ed.)
The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Eighteenth Century (1999): 530-51.
(ii) Indian society and the Company: accommodations and resistances
Richard Bamett, North India between Empires: Awadh, the Mughals and the British
1720-1801 (1987) ch. 3 and Conclusion.
PJ Marshall, Bengal: The British Bridgehead. Eastern India 1740-1828 (1987) chs 1-3
Veena Sachdeva, Polity and Economy of the Punjab during the Late Eighteenth Century
(1993)
11
Irfan Habib (ed.), Confronting Colonialism: Resistance and Modernisation under Haidar
Ali and Tipu Sultan, (1999)
'Rajat Kanta Ray, 'Indian Society and the Establishment of British Supremacy' in PJ
Marshal! (ed.), The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Eighteenth Century (1999):
508-29.
___ . The Felt Community: Commonality and Mentality before the Emergence of
Indian Nationalism (2003).
L. Subramanian, 'Banias and the British: The Role ofIndigenous Credit in the Process of
Imperial Expansion in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century' in Modern Asian
Studies, 21, 3, (1987): 437-510.
___ . Indigenous capital and imperial expansion: Bombay, Surat and the West Coast
(1996)
S. Alavi, The Sepoys and the Company. Tradition and Transition in Northern India
1770-1830. (1995) chs 2-3
**********************************************
WEEK 6: THE COMPANY'S STATE AND INDIAN SOCIAL
CHANGE, c. 1780-1860
(i) Was there an "Age of Reform" in this period? What if anything was "reformed" in
India's social, economic or political life between 1830 and 1850?
(ii) How far did Indians contribute to the construction of 'colonial knowledge'?
(iii) Why did print spread so rapidly through Indian society under the Company's state?
(iv) Why did the East India Company fail in its aim of 'modernising' India's regional
economies?
Sources
'BC Robertson, The Essential Writings ofRaja Rammohan Ray (1999)
(i) The 'Age of Reform'
'CA Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (1988) ch 4. 'The
consolidation and failure of the East India Company's State': 106-35.
___ . Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British
Expansion 1770-1870 (2002)
Radhika Singha, A Despotism of Law: Crime and Justice in Early Colonial India (1998)
'Providential Circumstances: the Thugee campaign of the 1830s and legal
innovation', Modern Asian Studies 27, I (1993): 83-146.
TR. Metcalf, Aftermath of Revolt (1995)
L. Mani, 'Contentions Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India' in K. Sanghari
and S. Vaid, Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial India (1989).
. Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India (1998)
Thomas R. Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (1995), ch. 2: Liberalism and Empire': 28-52.
John Rossel!i 1974 Lord William Bentinck. The Making of a Liberal Imperialist 17741839 (1974) 180-236.
12
(ii) Orientalism and colonial 'knowledge'
CA Bayly, 'Orientalists, Informants and Critics in Benaras, 1790-1860' in Jamil Malik,
ed. Perspectives ofMutual Encounters in south Asian History, 2000
*
. Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in
India, 1780-1870 (1996) chs 7-8
Michael S Dodson, 'Re-Presented for the Pandits: lames Ballantyne, 'Useful Knowledge'
and Sanskrit Scholarship in Benares College during the Mid-Nineteenth Century',
Modern Asian Studies 36, 2 (2002): 257-298.
*Bernard Cohn, 'The Command of Language and the Language of Command' in Ranajit
Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies IV (1985),276-329.
David Ludden, 'Orientalist Empiricism: Transformations of Colonial Knowledge' in
Carol Breckemidge and Peter van der Veer (eds.), Orientalism and the Post-Colonial
Predicament (1993),250-278
Nicholas B. Dirks, 'Colonial Histories and Native Informants: Biography of an Archive'
in Carol Breckemidge and Peter van der Veer (eds.), Orientalism and the Post-Colonial
Predicament (1993),279-313.
William Pinch, 'Same Difference in India and Europe' in History and Theory, 38, 3
(1999): 389-407
Eugene Irschick, Dialogue and History: Constructing South India 1795-1985 (1994) chs
2-3
PJ. Marshall, The British Discovery of Hinduism in the 18th Century (1970)
(iii) Print and the creation of a colonial 'public sphere'
*CA Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication
in India, 1780-1870 (1996) chs 5-6
___ . Origins ofNationality in South Asia: Patriotism and Ethical Government in the
Making of Modern India (1998) chs. 2-3
Minault & Masud in lamal Malik, ed. Perspectives of Mutual Encounters in south Asian
History, (2000): 97-127.
Phillip B. Wagoner, 'Precolonial Intellectuals and the Production of Colonial
Knowledge' in Comparative Studies in Society and History (2003), pp. 783-814 ..
Surnit Sarkar, 'Calcutta and the 'Bengal Renaissance' in Sukanta Chaudhuri, Calcutta
the Living City, (1990): 94-105.
Richard Fox Young, Resistant Hinduism: Sanskrit Sources on Anti-Christian Apologetics
in Early Nineteenth Century India (1981)
Veena Naregal, Language Politics, Elites and the Public Sphere: Western India Under
Colonialism (Delhi 2001)
Christopher Minkowski, 'The Pandit as Public Intellectual: the controversy over virodha
or Inconsistency in the Astronomical Sciences' in The Pandit: Traditional Scholarship in
India, ed. Axel Michaels, (2001): 79-96.
(iv) Economy and Society to 1857
Burton Stein (ed.), The Making of Agrarian Policy in British India 1770-1900, (1992):
Introduction, 1-32.
13
CA Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire, ch. 5, 'The Peasant and
the Brahman: Consolidating 'Traditional' society': 136-168.
-:-:--__ . Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British
Expansion 1770-1870 (2002) chs 5-7
Asiya Siddiqi, Economic Change in a North Indian State: UP 1800-1833 (1973)
Sumit GuhaAgrarian Economy of the Bombay Deccan 1818-1941 (1985) chs 2-3
Environment and Ethnicity in India (1999)
*D. Washbrook, 'Economic depression and making of 'traditional' society in colonial
India 1820-55', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 3, (1993): 237-63
_ _ . 'Law, state and agrarian society in colonial India", Modern Asian Studies 15, 3,
(1981): 649-721.
PJ Marshal!, Bengal: The British Bridgehead. Eastern India 1740-1828 (1987) chs 4-5
Sugata Bose, Peasant Labour and Colonial Capital: Rural Bengal since 1770 (1993): 3879
**********************************************
WEEK 7: COLONIAL SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS: CASTE,
CLASS AND GENDER
Questions
(i) Why after 1800 did the Indian caste 'system' survive and even become stronger and
more pervasive?
(ii) What did colonial officials Icolonial 'orientalists' think caste was? Did they 'invent'
caste?
(iii) Is class a relevant category for understanding Indian history in the colonial period?
(iv) Why did the social condition ofIndia women feature so prominently in public
debate over the course of the nineteenth century?
Primary source
Munshi Kali Prasad and Srivastava Dusre, The Kayastha Ethnology: being an enquiry
into the origin of the Chitraguptavansi and Chandrasenavansi Kayasthas (1877): 1-9 and
26-30.
(i) Caste
*McKim Marriott and Ronald 'Towards an ethnosociology of south Asian caste systems'
in Kenneth David (ed.), The new wind: changing identities in South Asia, (1977).
*Susan Bayly Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the
Modern Age (1999), ch 1 and ch 5.
William Pinch, Peasants and Monks in British India (1996) chs 3-4 and Conclusion, pp.
81-150.
Nandini Gooptu, The Politics of the Urban Poor in Early Twentieth Century India (2001)
chs. 1,6, and 7
Karen Leonard, Social History of an Indian Caste, The Kayasths of Hyderabad (1978):
chs 4-5, 11
14
Frank Conlon, A Caste in a Changing World: The Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmans 17001935 (1977) ch 6.
David Rudner, Caste and capitalism in colonial India: the Nattukottai Chettiars (1994),
ch. 3 and Conclusion: 'Social Structure as Social Investment'.
L. Carroll, 'Colonial perceptions ofIndian society and the emergence of caste(s)
associations, Journal ofAsian Studies 37 (1978) 233-55.
C. Baker & D. Washbrook, South India: Political Institutions and Political Change
1880-1940 (1975): ch. by Washbrook, 'The Development of a Caste Organisation in
Southern India'.
Oliver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany, The Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty and
the State in Modern India (1998) chs 1,3
(ii) Caste and Orientalism
Ronald Inden, "Orientalist constructions ofIndia", Modern Asian Studies (1986).
_ _ . Imagining India (1990.)
*R. O'Hanlon, 'Cultures of rule, communities of resistance: gender, discourse and
tradition in recent South Asian historiographies' Social Analysis, 25,1989,94-114.
S. Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern
Age (1999), ch. 3, 'Western 'orientalists' and the colonial perception of caste', 97-143.
Nicholas B. Dirks, 'Castes of Mind', Representations (1992),1-23.
___ . Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making ofModern India (2001)
(iii) Class
Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories
(1995), ch. 3: 'The Nationalist Elite': 35-75.
*Rajnarayan Chandavarkar 'Workers' Politics and the Mill Districts in Bombay between
the Wars' in Modern Asian Studies, xv, 3, (1981): 603-47.
_ _. Origins ofIndustrial Capitalism in India: Business strategies and the working
classes in Bombay, 1900-1940 (1994) chs 1,9.
_ _ . Imperial Power and Popular Politics: Class, Resistance and the State in India c.
1850-1950 (1998) chs 2,9
Dipesh Chakrabarty, Rethinking Working Class History: Bengal 1890-1940 (1989) ch 6
and Conclusion.
Sumit Sarkar, Writing Social History (1997), ch. 8, 'Ka/iyuga, Chaiai, Bhakti': 282-357.
Chitra Joshi, Lost Worlds: Indian Labour and Its Forgotten Histories (2003)
Prashant Kidambi, The Making of an Indian Metropolis: Colonial Governance and
Public Culture 1890-1920 (2007)
Tithi Bhattacharaya, The Sentinels of Culture: Class, Education and the Colonial
Intellectual in Bengal (2005), ch. 1
(iv) Gender
Geraldine Forbes, Women in Modern India (1996): chs 1-2
*Tanika Sarkar Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation: Community, Religion and Cultural
Nationalism (2001) Intro; ch. 1,6
Barbara Daly Metcalf, Perfecting Women: Maulana Ahsraf 'Ali Thanawi 's Bihishti
Zewar (1990) esp. Introduction
15
G. Minault Secluded Scholars: Women's Education and Muslim Social Reform in
Colonial India (1998)
K. Sanghari and S. Vaid, Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial India (1989) chs by
Chakravarti, Mani, Chatterjee.
L. Mani Contentious Traditions: the debate on sati in colonial India (1998) chs 1-4
J. Krishnamurti Women in Colonial India: Essays on Survival, Work and the State.
(1989) chs by Clark and Kishwar
P. Uberoi (ed.) Social Reform, Sexuality and the State (1996) chs 4, 12
B. Ray (ed) From the Seams of History: Essays on Indian Women (1995) ch 3
BR Nanda Indian Women: From Purdah to Modernity ch 3
R. O'HanlonA Comparison between Men and Women (1994), Introduction
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WEEK 8: EARLY NATIONALISM TO 1914
Questions
(i) Were there any coherent themes in the way that different Indians 'imagined' the
Indian nation before the First World War?
(ii) What and who did the early Congress represent, and why did it become so much
more radical after c. 1890?
Sources
*MG Ranade, Rise of the Maratha Power (1900), ch. 3, 'How the seed was sown', 18-26.
The 'modernity' of nationalism: debates
'CA Bayly The Origins ofIndian Nationality: Patriotism and Ethical Government in the
Making of Modern India (1998) 1-18
c:--:--:--' 'Rammohan Roy and the advent of constitutional liberalism in India', in
Modern Intellectual History, April 2007.
Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories
(1995), ch. 5, 'Histories and Nations': 95-115
Rajat Kanta Ray, The Felt Community: Commonality and Mentality before the
Emergence of Indian Nationalism (2003), ch. 1, 'Nationalism and Patriotism'.
Sugata Bose, 'The spirit and form of an ethical polity: a meditation on Aurobindo's
thought' in Modern Intellectual History, April 2007.
(i) Imagining the 'Indian nation': early nationalism to 1914
'CA Bayly The Origins of Indian Nationality: Patriotism and Ethical Government in the
Making ofModern India (1998) 63-128
___ . 'Origins ofswadeshi (home industry). Cloth and Indian society 1700-1930' in
CA Bayly, The Origins ofIndian Nationality: Patriotism and Ethical Government in the
Making ofModern India (1998)
T. Guha-Thakurtha, The making of a new Indian art. Artists, aesthetics and nationalism
in Bengal 1850-1920 (1992) ch. 6: 'The contest over tradition and nationalism: different
aesthetic formulations for 'Indian' painting': 185-225.
16
Vasudha Dalmia, The Nationalisation of Hindu Traditions: Bharatendu Harischandra
and Nineteenth Century Banaras (1997) chs 5-6
Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the
Modern Age, (1999): ch. 4: 'Caste and the modern nation: incubus or essence?' pp. 14486.
C. Watt, 'Education for National Efficiency: Constructive Nationalism in North India,
1909-1916', Modern Asian Studies, 31, 2 (1997): 339-74.
Tanika Sarkar Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation: Community, Religion and Cultural
Nationalism (2001), ch. 5, 'Imagining the Hindu Rashtra'.
S. Bose, 'Nation as Mother: Representations and Contestations ofIndia in colonial
literature', in S. Bose & A. Jalal, Nationalism, Democracy & Development (1998).
Farzana Shaikh, Community and Consensus in Islam: Muslim Representation in Colonial
India, 1860-1947 (1989) chs. 3-4
Cii) The politics of early nationalism
*Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture and Political
Economy (1998), ch. 11, 'A Nation in the Making?': 107-125
J. Gallagher, G. Johnson, A. Seal, eds. Locality, Province & Nation, especially chapters 1
&5
J. McLane, Indian Nationalism and the Early Congress (1977)
Mushirul Hasan, Nationalism and Communal Politics 1885-1930 (1991)
Francis C.R. Robinson, Separatism among Indian Muslims (1993), chs. 1-4
R.I. Cashman, The Myth of the Lokmanya: Tilak and Mass Politics in Maharashtra
(1975)
G. Johnson, Provincial Politics and Indian Nationalism: Bombay and the Indian National
congress 1880-1915 (1973)
CA Bayly, The Local Roots ofIndian Politics: Allahabad 1880-1920 (1973) chs 4-5
D.A. Washbrook, The Emergence ofProvincial Politics: The Madras Presidency 18701920 (1976), ch. 5, 'The Emergence of Provincial Politics'
S. Gopal, British Policy in India 1860-1914 (1965) ch. on Curzon
Sumit Saricar, The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, 1903-1908 (1973)
Bipan Chandra, The Rise & Growth of Economic Nationalism in India
**********************************************
HILARY TERM
WEEK 1: COMMUNITY AND IDENTITY IN NINETEENTH CENTURY
RELIGIOUS CULTURES
Questions
(i) Has any historian convincingly explained what was new about 'communal' conflicts
in India under colonialism?
17
(ii) What if anything was "Hindu revivalism"; who attempted to revive or reform
Hinduism during the 19th- and 20th-centuries, and what difference did it malce?
(iii) Can appeals to religious community identity during the colonial period be understood
outside the context of particular regional cultures? (Answer in relation to one or more
examples of your choice)
(i) Religious community identities: debates and theories
*CA Bayly, 'The Pre-history of "Communalism"? Religious conflict in India, 17001860', in Origins ofNationality in South Asia: Patriotism and Ethical government in the
Making of Modern India. (1998): 210-37
R. O'Hanlon, 'Historical Approaches to Communalism: Perspectives from Western
India' in P. Robb (ed.), Society and Ideology: Essays Presented to Professor Kenneth
Ballhatchet. (1993): 247-86.
Sandria B. Freitag, Collective Action and Community: Public Arenas and the Emergence
of Communalism in North India (1989)
Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (1990),
Introduction
Katherine Prior, 'The. State's Intervention in Urban Religious Disputes in the North
Western provinces in the Early Nineteenth Century', Modern Asian Studies 26,1,1993,
179-203.
Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, Hindus and Muslims in India (1994) chs 1- 2,
1-77.
(ii) Reform, internal critique and revival: Hinduism in colonial India
*K. Jones, Arya Dharm: Hindu consciousness in nineteenth century Punjab (1976)
G.D. Sontheimer & H. Kulke, Hinduism Reconsidered (1989)
W. Radice, Swami Vivekananda and the Modernization ofHinduism (1998)
IT.F. Jordans, Dayananda Saraswati: His Life and Ideas (1978)
Kenneth W. Jones, Socio-religious movements in British India (1989)
Kenneth W. Jones, (ed.) Religious Controversy in British India (chapters by
Jones on Swami Dayanand of the Arya Samaj, Metcalf on broad themes)
David Kopf, British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: the dynamics of Indian
modernization, 1773-1835 (1969)
(iii) Religious community identity and regional cultures
R. Cashman, The Myth of the Lokamanya: Tilak and Mass Politics in Maharashtra
(1975)
*William R. Pinch, Peasants and Monks in British India (1996) ch. 3
Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India (1990)
chs 3, 5-6.
N. Gooptu, "The urban poor and militant Hinduism in early 20th-century UP", Modern
Asian Studies 31, 4 (1997): 879-918.
A. Yang, 'Sacred Symbol and Sacred Space in Rural India: Community Mobilisation in
the 'Anti-Cow-Killing' Riot of 1893', Comparative Studies in Society & History, 22, 4,
(1980): 576-96.
18
W. Fusfeld, 'Communal Conflict in Delhi 1803-1930' Indian Economic and Social
History Review
NG Barrier, 'The Arya Samaj and Congress Politics in the Punjab, 1894-1908' in Journal
ofAsian Studies, 1967.
Harjot Oberoi, The Construction of Religious Boundaries: culture, identity and diversity
in the Sikh tradition (1997)
**********************************************
WEEK 2: NATIONALISM AND ITS CONTRADICTIONS IN INTERWAR INDIA
Questions
(i) Was the Indian National Congress a 'mass' movement at any point in the 1930s7
(ii) How far did a coherent vision of national community underlie the thinking ofIndia's
nationalist leadership?
(iii) What have been the strengths and weaknesses of the history writing of the Subaltern
Studies' group?
(i) Interwar nationalism
B.R. Tomlinson, The Indian National Congress and the Raj ch. 3
William Gould, Hindu Nationalism and the Language of Politics in Late Colonial India
(2004) ch. 2: 'Congress and the Hindu Nation: symbols, rhetoric and action', 35-85.
R. Guha (ed) Subaltern Studies vol. I (1982) ch. by Pandey; vol. III (1984): chs by Amin
and Hardiman; ch. VII, ch. by Guha, esp. pp. 91-120
F. Robinson, Islam and Muslim History in South Asia (2001) ch. 9
*R. Chandavarkar Imperial Power and Popular Politics: Class, Resistance and the State
in India c. 1850-1950 (1998) ch 8
(ii) Imagining the national community
MK Gandhi, Hind Swarai and other writings, (ed. Antony J Parel, 1997)
Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery ofIndia (1946) ch. 3
*CA Bayly, Origins of Nationality in South Asia: Patriotism and Ethical Government in
the Making of Modern India (1998), chs. 4, 6
Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the
Modern Age (1999) ch. 6.
Antony J Parel, Gandhi's Philosophy and the Questfor Harmony (2006)
William Gould, Hindu Nationalism and the Language ofPolitics in Late Colonial India
(2004) ch. 2: 'Congress and the Hindu Nation: symbols, rhetoric and action', 35-85.
(iii) Subaltern Studies
R. Guha, ed. Subaltern Studies, vol. 1, introduction by Guha; volume 3, ehs by Amin and
Hardiman; volume 7, ch by Guha, esp. pp. 91-120.
-c-c---' Subaltern Studies: A Reader 1986-1995 (1999)
*Vinayak Chaturvedi, Mapping Subaltern Studies and the Postcolonial (2000), ehs. by
Bayly, Pandey and ch. 14 by Sarkar.
19
David Ludden, Reading Subaltern Studies: critical history, contested meaning and the
globalization of South Asia (2002)
Ato Quayson, Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice or Process? (2000) ch. 2
**********************************************
WEEK 3: ISLAM, POLITICS AND PARTITION IN COLONIAL INDIA
Questions
(i) Has any historian convincingly explained the drive of some Muslims to found their
own political institutions and organisations in the late 19th-early 20th century?
(ii) Islamic revivalisms in C19th India - one or many?
(iii) Was the Partition ofIndia in 1947 inevitable?
(i) Debates about Muslim Separatism
*S. Freitag, 'The roots of Muslim separatism' in E. Burke & I. Lapidus, Islam, Politics
and Social Movements (1998)
Mushirul Hasan, Nationalism and Communal Politics, 1885-1930 (1991)
F.C.R. Robinson, Islam and Muslim History in South Asia (2001), ehs 8-9
-:---~--:-' Separatism Among Indian Muslims (1974)
A. Jalal, 'Exploring Separatism' in Jalal & Bose (eds), Nationalism, Democracy &
Development (1998)
F. Shaikh, Community and Consensus: Muslim Representation in Colonial India 18601947 (1989)
(ii) Reformers and revivalists
Barbara Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband 1860-1900 (1982)
Francis Robinson, Islam and Muslim History in South Asia (2001) ehs 3-4
David Lelyveld, Aligharh 's First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India (1996)
ehs. 2, 8
*Asim Roy and Howard Brasted (eds), South Asia Special Issue: Islam in History and
Politics: A South Asian Perspective (1999) Intro by Roy and Brasted; ch. by Roy
R. Ahmed, The Bengal Muslims, 1871-1906: a quest for identity (1981)
(iii) Religion and Politics from 1924 to Partition
Anil Seal and Ayesha Jalal, 'Muslim Politics between the Wars' in Modern Asian
Studies, (1981)
*David Gilmartin, 'Partition, Pakistan, and South Asian History: In Search of a
Narrative', Journal ofAsian Studies (1998)
M. Hasan, India's Partition: Process, Strategy and Mobilisation (1993) ch. by Hasan
A. Ray, 'High politics ofIndia's partition', Modern Asian Studies (1990)
William Gould, Hindu Nationalism and the Language ofPolitics in Late Colonial India
(2004) ch. 7
Joya Chatterji, Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932-1947 (1994)
L. Brennan, 'UP Muslims', Modern Asian Studies (1984)
20
I. Talbot, 'Deserted collaborators', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
(1982)
~~_. '1946 Punjab Elections' Modern Asian Studies (1980)
~----:_. Freedom's C1Y: the popular dimension in the Pakistan movement and Partition
experience (1996)
Essays in History Today (1997
**********************************************
WEEK4: THEMES IN THE HISTORY OF INDEPENDENT INDIA
1. Politics and the state: India and Pakistan
India
Question
How well has India's democracy served its citizens?
Crispin Bates, Subalterns and the Raj (2007), chs 12-15,17-18
Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: the History of the World's Largest Democracy
(2007)
Ben Zachariah, Nehru (2004)
Javeed Alam, Who Wants Democracy (2004)
Partha Chatterjee (ed), State and Politics in India (1997), chs. by Manor and Brass
Atul Kohli, The Success of India's Democracy (2001)
~-=-=-~. 'The politics of economic growth in India' in EPW, April 2006 (2 parts)
M. Hasan, Legacy of a Divided Nation. India's Muslims from Independence to Ayodhya
(1997)
A. Varshney. 'Is India becoming more democratic?' in Journal ofAsian Studies (2000)
PK Chibber and JK Petrocik, 'Social cleavages, elections and the Indian Party system' in
Zoya Hassan (ed.), Parties and Party Politics in India (2002)
Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity
(1995)
Joya Chatterjee, The Spoils of Partition: Bengal and India, 1947-67 (2007)
D. Rothermund, Liberalising 1ndia: Progress and Problems (2006)
Pakistan
Question
'Democratic failure in Pakistan is the most enduring legacy of Partition and
Independence in 1947'
Stephen Cohen, The 1dea of Pakistan (2005)
Ian Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History (2005 ed.)
Ayesha Jalal, Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia (1995)
~_. The State of Martial Rule: The Origins of Pakistan's Political Economy of
Defence (1990)
21
R. Sisson, War and Secession: Pakistan, India and the Creation of Bangladesh (1990)
Veena Kukreja, Contemporary Pakistan: Political Processes, Conflicts and Crises (2003)
Hassan Abbas and Jessica Stern, Pakistan's Drift to Extremism: Allah, the Army and
America's War on Terror (2004)
Pervez Musharraf, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir (2006)
2. The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism
Question
What factors have fostered the growth of the parties of the Hindu right in India?
Stuart Corbridge and John Harriss, Reinventing India: Liberalisation, Hindu Nationalism
and Popular Democracy (2000)
Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Nationalism, Democracy and Development: State and
Politics in India (1997) ch. by S. Bose
Thomas Blom Hansen, The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern
India (1999)
Thomas Blom Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot, The BJP and the Compulsions ofPolitics
in India (1998)
A. Rajagopal, Politics qfier Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the
Public in India (2001)
N. Gopal (ed), Democracy in India (2001) ch. by Jaffrelot
David Ludden, Making India Hindu: Religion, Community and the Politics of Democracy
in India (1996) intra and chs by Basu, Sarkar
Tanika Sarkar and Urvashi Bhutalia (eds), Women and Right-Wing Movements (1995)
chs. by Sarkar, Basu and Banerjee
Ratna Kapur and Brenda Cossman, Subversive Sites: Feminist Engagements with Law in
India (1996) ch. 4
Asghar Ali Engineer (ed.), The Gujarat Carnage (2003)
3. Caste, society and politics
Question
Why has caste continued to be such a potent force in independent India?
01iver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany, The Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty and
the State in Modern India (1998)
Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the
Modern Age (1998) chs 7-9
M. Galanter, Competing Equalities: Law and the Backvl'ard Classes in India (1991)
Christophe Jaffrelot, India's Silent Revolution: the rise of the lower castes in north India
(2003)
-:---:-::c-c. 'Rise of the OBCs in the Hindi Belt', in Journal of Asian Studies (2000)
Atul Kohli, The Success of India's Democracy (2001), ch. by Weiner
Gail Omvedt, Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition
in India (1993) chs. on caste movements
22
-,-_ _ . Dalit Visions: the anti-caste movement and the construction of an Indian
Identity (1995)
4. Environmental movements
Question
What issues have been most important for India's environmental movements, and why?
M. Gadgil and R. Guha, 'Ecological conflicts and the environmental movement in India'
in Development and Change, 1994
-:-:-:~,--' Ecology and Equity: The Use and Abuse o.[Nature in Contemporary India
(1995)
R. Guha, 'Chipko: social history of an environmental movement' in R. Guha, The
Unquiet Woods: ecological change and peasant resistance in the Himalaya (1989)
Gail Omvedt, Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition
in India (1993) chs. 6, 9
E. Mawdsley, 'Indian Middle Classes and Environment' in Development and Change
(2004)
S. Sinha et aI, 'The 'New Traditionalist' discourse ofIndian environmentalism' in
Journal of Peasant Studies (1997)
G. Shah (ed), Social Movements and the State (2002) ch. on environmental movements.
5. Gender and politics
Question
Do women's movements in India share a common agenda?
Leslie J. Calman, Towards empowerment: women and movement politics in India (1992)
Chs. 2-5 and conclusion
Bina Agarwal, Afield of one's own: gender and land rights in South Asia (1994), ch. 9
Tanika Sarkar and Urvashi Bhutalia (eds), Women and Right-Wing Movements (1995)
chs. by Sarkar, Basu and Banerjee
John S. Hawley, Fundamentalism and Gender (1994), chs, by Awn and Hawley
Radhu Kumar, The History 0.[ Doing: An Illustrated Account of the Movement for
Women's Rights and Feminism in India, 1800-1990 (1993) chs. 6-12
Peter de Souza (ed,) Contemporary India: Transitions (2000) ch by Niranjana
Gail Omvedt, Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition
in India (1993) chs. 4, 9
Mala Sen, Death by Fire: Sati, Dowry Death and Female 1nfanticide in Modern India
(2001)
Geraldine Forbes, Women in Modern India (1996)
**********************************************
23